Blowing a Lot of Hot Air

By RICHARD WINTON and ROBERTO MANZANO

Oct. 29, 1999 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

After 1 1/2 years on the books, Los Angeles’ controversial ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in residential areas is more hot air than substance, with spotty enforcement and few citations to show for all the public outcry.

The city Bureau of Street Services has received nearly 5,000 complaints since the ordinance went into effect. But citations for only a dozen violators have resulted, officials say. Most violators got a warning; some got two.

And thanks to a major loophole, judges are dismissing many citations that make it to court, creating a domino effect that has allowed hundreds of gardeners and homeowners to continue using howling machines powered by methanol.

“It’s just as bad as before [the city] put the ordinance in place,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of the Homeowners of Encino. “It’s a total failure. . . . Three, four, five days a week we always have a leaf blower going full blast.”

The Los Angeles Police Department doesn’t track its leaf blower citations, but interviews with officers in various divisions reveal that they are generally few.

Officials from Santa Monica to Laguna Beach say, however, that laws in their cities have not been completely empty exercises. Societal pressure brought to bear by ordinances has prompted fewer people to rely on the devices and encouraged manufacturers to develop quieter models.

In Los Angeles, although some gardeners try to comply with the law on the Westside--home of the ban’s biggest boosters--the roar of leaf blowers still fills the air elsewhere.

Joan Graves, a founder of Zero Air Pollution who fought 14 years for the law, concedes that enforcement is lax and says neighborhood peer pressure is the key to compliance.

Since its invention in Japan during the early 1970s, the leaf blower has become a popular device in California. Experts estimate that there are nearly 1 million used statewide, half of those in the Los Angeles Basin.

In 1975, Carmel became the first California city to ban the blowers. Beverly Hills followed the next year. Now there are 20 cities in the state that outlaw gasoline-powered devices. Eighty other cities in California have slapped noise limits or hourly restrictions on their use.

Yet a Times inquiry shows that outright leaf blower bans are largely problematic in a number of cities, including Los Angeles and its suburbs.

“When we get a call, we respond,” South Pasadena Police Chief Michael Berkow said about leaf blower complaints. “But the judges often just fine them a dollar or two.”

Despite the relative ineffectiveness of the ordinances, bitterness lingers over L.A.’s blower wars.

Adrian Alvarez, president of the Assn. of Latin-American Gardeners of Los Angeles, still maintains that such laws have robbed his group’s members--the working poor--of a major tool of their livelihood.

As a result, the association is backing a state bill to repeal the bans. The measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar)--a gardener’s son--would allow the use of blowers no louder than 65 decibels during business hours. That level is two or three times louder than most conversations, experts say.

The bill won Assembly approval in June but faces an uncertain future in the Senate. If passed, it would overturn bans in 19 cities. Only Santa Barbara’s ban, a ballot measure approved in 1997, would stand.

Cardenas’ bill would also trump Los Angeles’ ordinance, which went into effect in February 1998 and banned gas-fueled blowers within 500 feet of homes.

Originally, the ordinance was to have been effective months before, but gardeners organized and besieged City Hall, saying the law would threaten their livelihoods. The City Council stalled enforcement, igniting the fury of Westside homeowners weary of the blowers’ roar and the dust clouds they stir up.

An Oversight Grows Into a Loophole

The battle was portrayed as one between affluent whites and Latinos, haves and have-nots, environmentalists and profit-seekers. Gardeners even drew attention with a hunger strike.

Moved by the negative publicity, the council agreed to lower the penalties from a misdemeanor with fines of up to $1,000 to the current infraction with $270 per violation.

However, prosecutors say the law has been anything but simple to enforce--thanks to an oversight that has grown into a loophole. Los Angeles Municipal Court judges are dismissing cases, rare as they may be, because attorneys for the gardeners argue that the leaf blowers in question are powered by methanol, a fuel not addressed in the law.

“If they want to ban all leaf blowers, they’re going to have to rewrite the law,” said attorney Kimberly Buffington, who has successfully defended 10 gardeners.

Brags Alvaro Huerta, of the Latino gardeners group: “A lot of our members are using methanol now.” He said the ordinance was pushed by “so-called environmentalists who drive diesel-powered Mercedeses.”

Glenn Barr, spokesman for Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who championed the ban, said the council has no interest in revisiting the issue, thus precluding any effort to close the unintended loophole.

Barr is counting on a technological fix, saying the city Department of Water and Power is working on an electric leaf blower that is “as quiet as a hair dryer.”

Officials at the California Air Resources Board say, however, that anyone who has converted a post-1995 leaf blower from gasoline to methanol has violated state emissions law. The agency is currently performing an environmental impact study on such devices.

The LAPD has told officers not to cite people using methanol blowers, said spokeswoman April Archer. Officers, she added, have discretion over whether to warn or ticket violators.

“I don’t think we cite many people, to tell you the truth,” said Sgt. Kenneth Henkle of the North Hollywood Division. “We warn them.”

And in the LAPD’s Devonshire Division, they don’t even do that, said Sgt. Bruce Cowan. The entire division was under the impression that the city had declared a moratorium on the ordinance while it was being rewritten. Cowan said a City Council office told the division this.

Many LAPD divisions say they don’t track data on leaf blower infractions. In the West Los Angeles division--thought to be the leaf blower hotbed--officers said they have issued only two such tickets since Aug. 1.

Marcelino Santiago, 39, got a ticket in Hollywood some months ago. But Tuesday, the gardener seemed undeterred, using his gas blower in Woodland Hills. He said he needs the device to stay competitive. Besides, he added, the police rarely cause trouble.

“Sometimes they come and look at us, but they don’t say anything,” he said. “All the gardeners still use them--the only place we don’t is Beverly Hills, and that’s because the owners don’t like them.”

Some Warnings, Few Citations

Since the Los Angeles ordinance was enacted, the Bureau of Street Services has received 4,805 leaf blower complaints. Of those, 281 have resulted in second warnings. And of those, only a dozen resulted in citations from the bureau, police or city attorney’s office.

“The reason for so few violations is we are not finding many second or third offenses,” said Tonya Durrell, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, which includes the street bureau.

Yet Pepper Edmiston, Zero Air Pollution founder, has a different take on the figures and says they show the need for a special department or a private contractor to oversee leaf blower enforcement.

Violation of the laws, she added, is casual and widespread. Case in point: Edmiston’s own father--a former mayor of Beverly Hills--allowed his gardener to flout the law until she put a stop to it, she said.

“We need leaf blower patrols like meter maids,” she said. “The [authorities] aren’t interested unless someone like me is screaming.”

That seems to be the case in Studio City.

“Some people are saying, ‘Whatever happened to the ordinance?’ ” said Polly Ward, vice president of the Studio City Residents Assn.

Across the basin, South Pasadena police say the city’s ban is hard to enforce because offenders must be caught in the act.

Santa Monica Police Lt. Gary F. Gallinot agrees. Since January 1995, the department has received 1,700 complaints and cited 330 people, he said. “Obviously, leaf blowers are a low-priority call compared to other crimes,” he added.

In Hermosa Beach, police said no one has been cited under that city’s ban this year or last year.

Laguna Beach has perhaps the region’s strictest law, banning leaf blowers of any kind--gasoline, methanol, electric. Yet officials there issue only warnings, not fines.

Earlier this year, the Orange County Grand Jury issued a report saying 95% of residents and gardeners comply with the Laguna Beach ordinance, but professional gardeners dispute that figure.

“I still use [a leaf blower in Laguna]. I’ve never been caught,” said Steve Balogh, owner of Bio-Scapes Landscape Services. “I see others use it too. The law doesn’t change anything.”

Times staff writers Solomon Moore and Seema Mehta contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Too Loud?

Los Angeles is one of 20 California cities to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. Elsewhere in Southern California, many cities have no specific laws regarding the gardening devices but limit their use through general noise ordinances. Electric and battery-operated blowers are also exempt in most cities, including Los Angeles.

In addition to Los Angeles, these eight cities across Los Angeles County have banned gas-powered leaf blowers:

Beverly Hills

Claremont

Hermosa Beach

Lawndale

Malibu

Santa Monica

South Pasadena

West Hollywood

Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Estates ban the gas leaf blowers on Sundays and legal holidays.

A Range of Noises

Here, listed by category, are an assortment of noises and their decibel levels: